Pwn2Own (2013) Contest a Blast – FULL Results

CanSecWest is a conference, and 2013’s conference once again involved the Pwn2Own contest for hackers, an elite (1337) competition. The concept remained simple and will always that if you pwn a fully-patched browser running on a fully-patched laptop, you get to keep the laptop.

However, different rules applied this year. It involved successfully demonstrating the exploit, providing the sponsor (HP) the fully functioning exploit, and all details involved with the vulnerability used in the attack. If there were many vulnerabilities, multiple reports are needed, etc.

The work couldn’t be sold to anyone else, and proof of concept would belong to HP once sold. Basically, HP buys the winning exploits for own use. Their idea of reward money was the following:

Google Chrome on Windows 7 = $100,000

IE10 on Windows 8 = $100,000 or IE9 on Windows 7 = $75,000.

Mozilla Firefox on Windows 7 = $60,000

Apple Safari on Mac OS X Mountain Lion = $65,000

Adobe Reader XI and Flash Player = $70,000

Oracle Java = $20,000

It was assuredly a blast at the competition, no doubt about it.

DAY ONE: Java, Chrome, IE10, and Firefox PWNED!!!

(Where’s Safari, right? It survived!)

The idea behind each attack is the ability to browse to an untrusted website where you’re able to inject and run arbitrary code outside of the browsing environment.

Of course, one of the rules is: “A successful attack … must require little or no user interaction and must demonstrate code execution… If a sandbox is present, a full sandbox escape is required to win.”

In addition to Chrome, Firefox, and IE10 being pwned, Java was pwned three times on the first day. Once by James Forshaw, Joshua Drake, and VUPEN Security. VUPEN Security also led a lot of the pack of issues by successfully exploiting IE10 and Firefox as well.

The only other exploit was by Nils & Jon, where both successfully exploited Chrome.

The day after the first day of Pwn2Own, Mozilla and Google patched the exploits that were pushed out. Amazingly fast, Firefox went on to version 19.0.2 (which you should’ve been updated automatically), and Chrome went on to version 25.0.1364.160 (effectively patching 10 vulnerabilities).

“We received the technical details on Wednesday evening and within less than 24 hours diagnosed the issue, built a patch, validated the fix and the resulting builds, and deployed the patch to users,” said Michael Coates, Mozilla’s director of security assurance, in a Thursday blog.

Microsoft has decided to wait until next week’s Patch Tuesday run of updates to push out the fix for the Internet Explorer exploit on IE10.

DAY TWO: Adobe Reader and Flash Player PWNED!!! Java PWNED AGAIN!!!

The last day of Pwn2Own 2013 went with a BANG!

Flash Player…exploited by VUPEN Security (any surprise?). Adobe Reader PWNED by George Hotz. Java once again was exploited, this time proxied by Ben Murphy.

Who’re the overall prize winners?

James Forshaw, Ben Murphy, and Joshua Drake for Java – each $20,000

VUPEN Security for IE10 + Firefox + Java + Flash – $250,000

Nils & Jon for Google Chrome – $100,000

George Hotz for Adobe Reader – $70,000

Of course, George Hotz is best known for jailbreaking the iPhone and PlayStation 3. He’s still in progress with a lawsuit with Sony over the issue for PS3.